It's the Holiday Season!

And here is Grover in all his holiday spirit.  He actually does not mind wearing a blinking Christmas light necklace.  He is just the most easy-going dog I have ever known.

Yes, the holidays are in full swing with Christmas only 2 days away and then the beginning of 2014 fast on its heels.  I have kept busy with my Christmas knitting and weaving, which I will share with you all after everyone has received their gifts.  I thought I was finished and today I decided that I had to come up with one more quick gift for this weekend.  Whew!  Plus last week I baked about 8 dozen cookies for a fundraiser for the shelter.  We had a "Cookie Bazaar" last Friday and raised about $500, so the Shelter has benefited this month from everyone's holiday generosity.
 
Our weather has been crazy!  We had several days where it did not get above freezing, resulting in beautiful scenes like this across the creek from our hayfield and like this of the chickens eating bird seed off the back deck

I do love it that no matter how cold it has been, there is still a lot of green to be found in  the woods.  And this moss is such a vibrant green.


Then, this past Friday, it really warmed up and we got about an inch and a half of rain.  While the warm up is nice, I could do without the resulting mud.  Another bad thing about a warm up is that the asian beetles (or lady bugs) that swarm into our house after the first frost looking for a place to overwinter seem to wake up and think it is time to move around.  This means they crawl through any crack and crevice toward warmth and light, which mostly seems to be into the interior of my house.  I spend about 1/2 an hour a day just vacuuming them off my bedroom and bathroom walls, ceilings and windows.  They stink and they make a mess.  I really hate them.  I also hate whoever it was who decided to import them into the US

This is just a few of the many clustered on my bedroom window.  As I vacuum them up, more arrive to take their place.  If I try to read with a light on next to the bed, they dive bomb me because they are drawn to the light.  There seems to be no way to get rid of them other than patient vacumming, over and over again.

I have mentioned in past posts that there is oil and gas drilling going on in our area and right adjacent to our farm.  It is still happening and another drill pad is being prepared now on the farm adjoining us to the south.  They have even torn up the hard surface of the county road and replaced with with something they can more easily haul the heavy equipment in on.  

Here is Grover up in our upper hayfield and you can see the drill rig which is on the next hill top over just to his left.  

I have started to get some fleeces ready to send of to be processed into roving.  My favorite mill for roving, which is in Michigan, usually offers big discounts when you send in fiber in January, so it is a good idea to be prepared.  I need to get out in my studio/fiber storage room and see what all I can send them.  So far I have skirted a rose grey, a black and a light fawn (which I plan to dye) which I hope to have done into a 3-way swirl roving.  I will make a sample up on my hand carders once I get the fawn fleece dyed.  The fiber I took to Morning Star in late October is due to be spun in January as well.  

Rowdy was sick this past week.  He decided to eat something in the woods he should not have eaten and it led to us making a trip to the vet a few days later.  The vet thinks he had pancreatitus and he was on several medications for the last 5 days and now we are down to just one pill twice a day.  He really did not feel well and I am so glad he is back to his old beloved self.             

Our Christmas plans include spending Christmas day at Sam's parents' house.  They live about 1/2 an hour away.  His brother will be there along with his daughter and possibly his girlfriend.  Then on Friday I will drive across the state to spend some time with my mother and see my brothers and their families.


I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!  See you next year!